Cari Gonzalez-Casanova

Description

Numbered and signed copy

This artist book project looks at the politics of fear and considers the efficiency of the form of the manual as vector of a certain mythology of the "other". It examines the mechanisms of transmission (and appropriation) of collective desires and fears.

Home Guard Manual of Camouflage is inspired by the military manual written by Roland Penrose (from which Cari Gonzalez-Casanova borrow's the name) for the British army in 1941. Cari Gonzalez-Casanova's version is a hybrid manual which fonctions both as manual and anthropological study. It presents texts from such disparate sources as Penrose's manual, recent government security manuals, and DIY manuals from the American counter-culture of the 70's.The artist book comes with a digitized version of the manual and a documentary video featuring archival footage showing military camouflage stragegies of mimicry, a military camouflage training video and a reference to survival kits (a staple of all military and safety manuals) taken from the film Dr Strangelove from Stanley Kubrick.

Written in French and English, the manual is divided into 12 sections / themes (such as: Mimicry, Camouflage and Nature, Bluff and Decoys, Invisibility and Biological Terrorism). In addition to these sections, the artist book dedicates a part of the book to specially commissioned texts on the theme of camouflage. The participating authors are: Anne Casanova (psychoanalyst and author at Flammarion), Jean-Pierre Cometti (philosopher, editor, translator and author of several books on aesthetics), Brice Matthieussent (author at P.O.L., critic, translator and professor of Contemporary Art History at l'École Supérieur d'Art et de Design Marseille-Méditerranée), Derek Hodgson (author and researcher at the University of York).

Manual238 pages22.5 x 19.7 x 5.4 cmThe book is placed in a cardboard boxDimensions of the cardboard box 28.7 x 23.7 x 8.6 cmIncludes video Complilation 1, 46 minutes and 34 seconds and digitized version of the manualLimited edition of 200 numbered and signed copies and 10 artist's proofsProduced and published in 2016 by Cari Gonzalez-Casanova